Carla wanted to make some of those cute little yarn balls that are all over Pinterest. Carla? Yer doin’ it wrong:

I found a pin where you dip yarn in watered down glue, then wrap around a balloon. After a day, the yarn should be dry, you can pop the balloons and be left with cute little yarn balls. I couldn’t find the 5″ – 8″ balloons recommended in the pin, so I went with what was at the store – long twisty balloons (like you use for balloon animals). I tried to subdivide the balloon into smaller, rounder segments for wrapping, but it was an epic fail! It was nearly impossible to wrap the mini-segments – the yarn would hardly stay on the balloons, bunched up everywhere and just looked terrible.

17 Responses to Yarn Balls – Yer Doing It Wrong!

I totally had the same thing happen! I tried to make eggs for Easter and when I popped the balloon on the first one the whole thing collapsed!I think I had two out of five that were salvageable. It was totally a fail! ;-)

My mom and I did these when I was a kid, and really, it is all about getting the yarn good and wet in the glue, and letting them dry as long as it takes. When you pop the balloon you have to be careful and pull it out slowly…. but it should work. We used them as decor for a long time. It was a good memory!! Hope that helps!

You have to gently push the balloon away from the yarn first, then pop it. We made these at day camp with K-7th and it worked :) It just takes time to dry, very wet (and thin) yarn, and getting the balloon unstuck before popping.

made these – the trick is wiping the glue glop from the yarn BEFORE you wrap it around the balloon – there will still be enough glue to work – then let the balloon dry for about 8 hours – after you pop the balloon, use a needle to scrape any big chunks of dry glue from your dried yarn.

I tried these balloon strong balls but as I have not read the instructions properly many times on other projects I have started, I read the instructions to a few different pins of this, just so I understood. Mine turned out really cute :) Don’t get me wrong, I have fucked up some craft/baking projects. And by some I mean a lot. I got to impatient and popped the balloon before it was dry. It collapsed. I just stuck in a new balloon and blew it up. totally worked.

I have to say now, I love reading your misshaps, lol, too funny. I did these for a wedding last Summer and my turned out beautiful. I can’t remember what all I bought, I just went to Hobby Lobby and got different brands, but I have to say, the cotton yard worked much better. Just make sure you use alot of string to make a pretty ball and plenty of glue as well.

made the balls with natural twine and dipped it in glue wrapped it round a small balloon and dipped in glitter took a good while to dry but each child had somthing to put on the tree, love to try in colours.

So mine turned out fine. But a few days after they were made and dried we turned off the ac for a few hours, it got kind of hot like 80. And they all started almost melting. Help I don’t know what to do. I am making them for My wedding and I just ruined 35 of them! I tried clear spray paint, that didn’t work Fabric stiffener, more glue? I just don’t know.
I used homemade glue (flour sugar water and vinager) on some and Elmer’s on other. Both did the same thing.